New Delhi, Aug 25: On the tenth day of Anna Hazare’s
fast, Lok Sabha today unanimously appealed to him to end his hunger
strike as his life was “much too precious”, with Prime Minister Manmohan
Singh saying he has “registered his point” and that Jan Lokpal would be
considered by Parliament.

Singh hailed the Gandhian, saying he
had become “an embodiment of the disgust and concern of the people over
corruption” and that he respected him.

“I respect his idealism. I
respect him as an individual... I applaud him. I salute him. His life
is much too precious and therefore I would urge Hazare to end his fast,”
he said replying to a debate on corruption which was pressed for by the
opposition in the wake of Hazare’s fast.

Singh invited the House
to issue a joint appeal to Hazare to end his fast. Leader of the
Opposition Sushma Swaraj supported this following which Speaker Meira
Kumar spoke about the sentiments of the House with an appeal that he
should end his fast.

With regard to Hazare’s demand for passing
his version of the Lokpal Bill by Parliament, Singh said, “We will find
effective ways and means to discuss the Jan Lokpal Bill, along with the
government version of the Bill, Aruna Roy’s Bill and the paper presented
by Jaiprakash Narayan.”

Contending that “all ideas will be
discussed, debated so that we have the best possible Bill which will
help us to deal with corruption, he said Parliament should discuss the
“strong and weak points” of all the Bills which are in public domain and
send the entire record for consideration of the Standing Committee.

Singh
said he was of the view that “this will meet the point that Anna Hazare
and his team have been making that Parliament must have a chance to
debate the Bill drafted by them. This is one via media which will
respect Parliament’s supremacy and enable Parliament to take on board
the Jan Lokpal Bill,” Singh said.

He said he had given thought on the issues raised by Team Hazare in “great depth”.

Lauding
Hazare, Singh said he had “made his point and that has been registered
with us. I respect his idealism. He is the embodiment of people’s
disgust with corruption.”

Amid thumping of desks, he said Hazare should live a long and happy life in the service of the people.

“I respectfully request him to end his fast. This will be a befitting finale of the debate on corruption,” Singh said.

Swaraj
supported the Prime Minister’s appeal and said the nation was committed
to bringing a strong and effective anti-graft legislation.

Reflecting
the sentiments of the House, the Speaker hoped that Hazare would get
the unanimous message of the Lok Sabha and end his fast.

Contending
that the government would “work with single minded devotion to leave
behind for posterity” a bill to meet the challenge posed by corruption,
Singh said “we are open to all suggestions and we will work with all
sections for a strong and effective Bill on which there is a national
consensus.”

He said the government has a bill that reflects its thinking. But “we are open to persuasion and have an open mind.”

Singh
took strong exception to personal attack by the Opposition that he was
“conniving with corruption” and asked Leader of the Opposition to check
his assets to see whether he had made any money.

Outlining
details of the recent developments including differences at the Joint
Committee to draft anti-corruption legislation, the Prime Minister said
Hazare had gone on fast with his demand that Jan Lokpal Bill should be
adopted by Parliament.

Noting that the government’s bill has been
referred to the Standing Committee, he said the panel “can consider all
options and we can find ways and means of ensuring that the bill that
has been prepared by Shri Anna Hazare is given due consideration by the
Committee.”

He said the government was open to all suggestions
and “we will work with all sections of this House to have a Lokpal, who
is strong, who is effective and about which there is a national
consensus.”

Describing corruption as a “multi-faceted” problem,
Singh said his government was committed to fighting it and stressed need
for collectively finding “credible olutions”.

In this regard,
he emphasised the obligation of states along with that of the Centre to
“clean up the system” as there is “anger in the country” about misuse of
public offices.

Giving details of the steps taken to check
corruption, he said a Group of Ministers had made important suggestions
to curb discretionary powers of Ministers.

“These will be
considered by the Cabinet and we will put in place a mechanism to reduce
the scope for misuse of discretionary powers or to eliminate
discretionary powers wherever it can be done without detriment to public
interest or achievement of public good,” he said.

Describing
corruption as a “multi-faceted” problem, Singh said the nation would
have to find “practical”, “pragmatic” and “effective means” to tackle
it.

Observing that in early 1990s the single biggest source of
corruption was the system of licensing and controls and the high
taxation, Singh said liberalisation “ended that story”.

The time
has now come to tackle this problem form various angles, he said, adding
new methodologies have to be developed to plug leakages in the public
distribution system or corruption in government contracts.

While
the Centre needed to work with the states to tackle problems in the PDS,
the contracting mechanism would have to be streamlined to have lesser
scope of corruption, he said and added that the proposal to introduce
General Sales Tax all over the country would be one of the ways to deal
with tax evasion.

“I recognise that a residual element is still
there and we have to work together through various mechanisms, including
Goods and Services Tax which is now in public domain and, which, I
believe, an obligation which our country must fulfil if it wants to move
forward,” Singh said.

“There are many other areas where corruption still persists. We have to tackle this problem from various angles,” he said.

He
talked about “leakages” in administering of central government
programmes by state government and said “we must find ways and means of
reforming the system of public administration so that these leakages can
be plugged.

Singh said a Public Procurement Act was also needed
to streamline the contracting mechanisms in a manner in which there will
be “less scope for corruption” in future. PTIsource:www.indiatvnews.com